Correlation between the strength of the scattering potential and the calculated electrical resistivity of liquid metals

Abstract

A strong correlation is found between the strength of the scattering potential for the electrons and the deviation of the calculated electrical resistivity from the experimental value. The values found for rho _calc/ rho _expt are 1.03, 1.04, 0.96, 1.12, 2.4, and 5.3 for Na, K, Al, Pb, Zn and Cd, respectively. These values of rho _calc/ rho _expt are correlated with the corresponding values for the strength of the scattering potential relative to the kinetic energy of the electron being scattered: 0.04, 0.05, 0.07, 0.15, 0.24, and 0.32. An explanation of this correlation is presented in terms of the criterion for the validity of the Born approximation.